As we all know, the Escape [Esc] key doesn’t work in the Google Chrome web browser. The Esc key should stop animated gifs dead in their tracks, but it doesn’t. Nor is there a trusty Web Developer toolbar available to do away with them once and for all.

Solution:

Have another tab open in your browser while you’re surfing, (if you don’t already).

Click the other tab with your mouse, then click back to your original tab that had the animated gif.

Caveats:

a. This only stops the gif animation so that you can read without distraction. When you scroll your browser or click the page, the gif will start animating again. This is a temporary hack, until Google adds this functionality or a plugin is written.

b. You must use your mouse to click another tab and then click back on the tab you are trying to stop gif animation in. You can’t use the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[Tab].